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Diabetes: Counting Carbs if You Use Insulin

Teaches counting carbs to help you maintain control of your blood sugar level when you have diabetes. Explains why carb counting is important, allowing you to adjust the amount of insulin you take. Includes links to more info on type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

Diabetes: Counting Carbs if You Use Insulin

Introduction

Carbohydrate, or carb, counting is an important
skill to learn when you have
diabetes. Carb counting helps you keep tight control of your blood sugar (glucose) level.
It also gives you the flexibility to eat what you
want. This can help you feel more in control and confident when managing your
diabetes.

Carb counting helps you keep your
blood sugar at your target level.

It allows you to adjust the amount of
insulin you take. This amount is based on how many grams of
carbs you eat at a meal or snack. The formula used to find how much insulin you need is called the insulin-to-carbohydrate
ratio.

The insulin-to-carbohydrate ratio is not the same for each person. You and your doctor will find your ratio by keeping track of the food
you eat and testing your blood sugar level after meals.

How do you count carbohydrate grams in your diet?

To
count carb grams at a meal, you need to know how many carbs are
in each type of food you eat. This includes all food, whether it is a slice of bread, a bowl of lettuce, or a
spoonful of salad dressing. Most packaged foods have
labels that tell you how many total carbs are in one serving.
Carbohydrate guides can help too. You can get these from diabetes educators and the American
Diabetes Association.

To find out how many carbs are in food that
is not packaged, you will need to know standard portions of
carbohydrate foods. Each
serving size or standard portion has about 15 grams of
carbs.

By using the number of grams of carbs in
a meal, you can figure out how much insulin to take. This is based on your
personal insulin-to-carbohydrate ratio.

For example: Your doctor may advise you to take 1 unit of rapid-acting
insulin for every 10 to 15 grams of carbs you eat. So if your meal
has 50 grams of carbs and your doctor says you need 1
unit of insulin for every 10 grams of carbs, you would need 5 units of
insulin to keep your post-meal blood sugar from rising above your target
level.

Your insulin-to-carbohydrate ratio may change over time. In
some people it will change from one meal to the next. You might take 1 unit of
insulin for every 10 grams of carbs for lunch but take 1 unit for every
15 grams at dinner.

Keep these tips in mind when counting carbs:

Portion control is important. If a package says
it contains two servings and you eat the whole package, you need to double the
number of grams of carbs listed for one serving.

Protein, fat, and
fiber do not raise blood sugar very much. If you eat a
lot of these
nutrients in a meal, carbs will change to
glucose more slowly than it would with a meal that has a small amount of
protein, fat, and fiber.

Advanced carb counting takes into account the amount of fiber or sugar alcohols in a food. For example, if a food has 5 or more grams of fiber per serving, you can subtract half the amount of fiber from the total number of carb grams. A food that has 30 grams of carbs and 8 grams of fiber would be counted as 26 grams of carbs. If you use a rapid-acting insulin, you may want to consider sugar alcohols if there are more than 5 grams of them in the food. Divide the number of sugar alcohols in half. Then subtract that number from the total carb count.

Exercise affects blood sugar. It allows you
to use less insulin than you would if you did not exercise. Keep in mind
that timing makes a difference. If you exercise within 1 hour of a meal, your
body may need less insulin for that meal than it would if you exercised 3 hours
after the meal.

When you keep track of what you eat and you test your blood
sugar after meals and exercise, you can figure out what effect
protein, fat, fiber, and exercise have on the amount of insulin you need.

To count carbs and eat a balanced diet:

Talk with a
registered dietitian. He or she can help you plan how many carbs to include in each meal and snack. This includes sweets.

Measure your food portions. You won't always have to measure your food.
But it may help when you are first learning what makes up a standard
portion.

Eat standard portions of
foods that have protein. Foods that have protein
(such as meat and cheese) are a key part of a balanced
diet.

Limit saturated fats. A balanced diet includes a limited
amount of healthy fat. Talk with a registered dietitian about how much fat you
need in your diet.

Other helpful ideas

Read
food labels for carb amounts. Be aware of the serving size
on the package.

Check your blood sugar level. If you do this before
and 1 hour after a meal, you will be able to see how the food you eat affects
your blood sugar.

Record what you eat and your blood sugar
results in a food record(What is a PDF document?). You can review your
food record each time you visit your
registered dietitian or
certified diabetes educator. And you can review it anytime you think
your meal plan needs adjusting.

Get more help. The American Diabetes Association offers
booklets to help people learn how to count carbs in their diet. These booklets can also teach you how to
measure and weigh food and to read food labels. But you will still need to talk with a registered dietitian to
make a plan that fits your needs.

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How this information was developed to help you make better health decisions.